Showing posts with label Bill Gates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Gates. Show all posts

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Bill Gates

Bill Gates

The US Trends | Bill Gates | William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, author and former CEO and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He has consistently ranked among the world's richest people, and was the richest of all 1995-2009, except 2008, when he finished third. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest single shareholder with more than 8 percent of ordinary shares. He has also written or co-author of several books.

Bill Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion that, in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the latter stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic projects, donating large sums of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000 .

Bill Gates stepped down as Microsoft CEO in January 2000. He remained as president and the newly created position of Chief Software Architect. In June 2006, the doors it would be the transition from full-time work at Microsoft part-time and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy director. Bill Gates last full day of Microsoft was 27 Jun 2008th will be at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.

Entrepreneur: Bill Gates, born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, began to show an interest in computer programming at the age of 13. Through technological innovation, keen business strategy, and aggressive competitive tactics, he and his partner Paul Allen built the world's largest software business, Microsoft. In the process, Bill Gates became one of the richest men in the world.

Born William Henry Gates III, on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. Bill Gates began to show an interest in computer programming at the age of 13 at the Lakeside School. He pursued his passion through college. Striking out on his own with his friend and business partner Paul Allen, Gates found himself at the right place at the right time. Through technological innovation, keen business strategy, and aggressive competitive tactics he built the world's largest software business, Microsoft. In the process he became one of the richest men in the world.

Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle-class family with two sisters: Kristianne, who is older, and Libby, who is younger. Their father, William H. Gates, Sr., was a promising, if somewhat shy, law student when he met his future wife, Mary Maxwell. She was an athletic, outgoing student at the University of Washington, actively involved in student affairs and leadership. The Gates family atmosphere was warm and close, and all three children were encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence. Bill showed early signs of competitiveness when he coordinated family athletic games at their summer house on Puget Sound. He also relished in playing board games (Risk was his favorite) and excelled in Monopoly.

Bill had a very close relationship with his mother, Mary, who after a brief career as a teacher devoted her time to helping raise the children and working on civic affairs and with charities. She also served on several corporate boards, among them First Interstate Bank in Seattle (founded by her grandfather), the United Way, and International Business Machines (IBM). She would often take Bill along on her volunteer work in schools and community organizations.

Bill was a voracious reader as a child, spending many hours pouring over reference books such as the encyclopedia. Around the age of 11 or 12, Bill's parents began to have concerns about his behavior. He was doing well in school, but he seemed bored and withdrawn at times. His parents worried he might become a loner. Though they were strong believers in public education, when Bill turned 13 they enrolled him in Seattle's Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school. He blossomed in nearly all his subjects, excelling in math and science, but also doing very well in drama and English.

While at Lakeside School, a Seattle computer company offered to provide computer time for the students. The Mother's Club used proceeds from the school's rummage sale to purchase a teletype terminal for students to use. Bill Gates became entranced with what a computer could do and spent much of his free time working on the terminal. He wrote a tic-tac-toe program in BASIC computer language that allowed users to play against the computer.

It 'was the Lakeside School, where Bill met Paul Allen, who was two years old. Two became fast friends, bonding in common is their enthusiasm for computers, although they were very different. Allen was reserved and shy. Bill was a feisty and combative at times. Both spent much of his free time programs are working together. Sometimes I do not agree, and would be contrary to who was right or who is to run the computer lab. At some point, their argument escalated to the point where prohibited by Allen Gates computer lab. In the second case, Gates and Allen had rights to use the school computers for a waiver of defect free software on the computer from the company that if your computer. After the test, came back to the computer lab, where they are offered to debug the program. During this time, Gates has developed a payroll, the boys broke into a computer company, and program design for the school.

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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Windows 8 Update: The End of Adobe Flash?

Microsoft appears to be taking a page out of Apple's play book saying it will dump plug-ins such as Adobe Flash from Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8. Well, sort of.


You'll still be able to view content requiring plug-ins in Windows 8, but you'll have to switch to the old fashioned Windows desktop to see it. Users who prefer to remain in the touch-centric, Metro-style interface, however, will have a plug-in free (and presumably Flash-free) experience. Instead, the new touch-centric IE 10 will rely on HTML5 technologies for online video and other functions.

"For the web to move forward and for consumers to get the most out of touch-first browsing, the Metro style browser in Windows 8 is as HTML5-only as possible, and plug-in free," said Dean Hachamovtich, who leads Microsoft's Internet Explorer team. "The experience that plug-ins provide today is not a good match with Metro style browsing and the modern HTML5 web."

The good news is that thanks to Apple's anti-Flash trailblazing with the iPhone and iPad, many websites now offer HTML5 video when the Flash plug-in is not present. YouTube, for example, will still run without Flash as will many other video sites.


Microsoft said it examined the plug-in requirements for the top 97,000 sites worldwide and discovered that 62 percent can already offer HTML5 video to non-Flash devices. Many of these sites can also serve non-Flash ads as well.

If you visit a site that still relies on ActiveX controls or other plug-in content, you will be prompted to tap a "Use Desktop View" notification. This will take you to the traditional desktop where you can view the content requiring a plug-in.

What Microsoft didn't mention is where this leaves the company's own Flash competitor, Silverlight. Will Silverlight compatibility be built into the Metro version of Internet Explorer 10 or is Silverlight on the Web gone too? The technology still has a life as a tool for developers, so Silverlight on the Web may not be a big loss for the Windows maker. Microsoft was unavailable for comment at the time of this writing.


Adobe FlashThere's also the question of whether Metro-style IE 10 will support add-ons (also known as extensions) or toolbars. Microsoft wasn't clear on this point. "In Windows 8, IE 10 is available as a Metro style app and as a desktop app," said Steven Sinofksy, president of Windows and Windows Live, on the Building Windows 8 blog. "The desktop app continues to fully support all plug-ins and extensions." Sinofsky didn't explicitly say that extensions won't be supported in the Metro interface, but his comments do suggest that extensions are out for Metro-style IE 10.

Admittedly, a lot of these add-ons wouldn't be missed (especially toolbars packaged with other downloads), and IE was never big on add-ons compared to competing browsers such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. But some extensions might be missed in the touchable version of IE 10 such as identity managers that help you save passwords and automatically fill out Web forms.

Nevertheless, the lack of plug-ins and possibly extensions should make IE more responsive and faster when using the Metro UI.

This could also be a huge blow to Adobe since the Metro-style interface will be the first thing home users see when they fire up Windows 8 on their laptops and desktops. It's possible that Microsoft could adopt Google's strategy and build Flash right into IE, but that would technically be using a plug-in and thus not be as plug-in free as Microsoft is promising.

Microsoft's comments, while they don't explicitly say this, suggest that Flash will not be included in the Metro-style version of Windows 8. So unless PC users at home reject the Metro-style interface and stick with the traditional desktop in Windows 8 or Windows 7, Microsoft may effectively finish what Apple started and kill Flash on the Web.

Adobe was unavailable for comment at the time of this writing.

Windows 8 Preview Version Downloads rise over 500,000 copies

Microsoft Corp. said developers have downloaded 500,000 copies of the preview version of Windows 8 since its debut yesterday, evidence of interest in an operating system that will vie with Apple Inc. software.


“While it's clear we have a long way to go still with Windows 8, we've been gratified by the reactions and the interest,” Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said today at a conference for developers in Anaheim, California. One area needing more work: a Windows 8 version that runs on chips with technology from ARM Holdings Plc, which is “very, very important to us,” Ballmer said.

Microsoft is rushing to complete Windows 8 because the company wants an operating system capable of running thinner, lighter tablet machines with battery power that can rival Apple's iPad. That need has led the world's largest software maker to make its Windows personal-computer operating system compatible with ARM-based chips for the first time. ARM processors typically run smartphones and other mobile gadgets.
At the conference, Microsoft gave attendees a prototype machine running an Intel Corp. chip rather than an ARM model, a sign that version is farther along. Microsoft hasn't said when Windows 8 devices will go on sale.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, rose 46 cents to $26.50 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have lost 5.1 percent of their value this year.

While Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky yesterday said that Windows 8 “re-imagines” what Windows can do, Ballmer today said that the effort -- as well as Microsoft's push into Internet-based cloud services and new types of hardware -- represent a “re-imagining” of the entire company.

Even as it focuses on tablets, phones and cloud computing, the company will keep Windows at the heart of its strategy, Ballmer said.

“Windows is at the center,” he said. “People question whether that is a good idea. I think it's an exceptionally good idea.”

Windows Phone, the mobile-phone software that Microsoft released last year, hasn't performed as
well as Ballmer would have liked, he said. Still, positive reception from those who have bought the devices, as well as the support from handset makers, gives him hope for the future, he said.

“I'm not saying I love where we are, but I am very optimistic on where we can be,” Ballmer said.

When asked if Microsoft's Internet-search partnership with Yahoo was at risk, given the company's ouster of CEO Carol Bartz, Ballmer said he's not worried.

“The partnership will remain strong no matter where they want to take their business or whoever they happen to install next as CEO,” he said.

Windows 8 tablets to have 15% market share by 2014 says analyst

What a difference an “8” makes: Microsoft’s Windows 8 only broke cover properly earlier this week, and analysts are already declaring it a future sales success. RBC Capital Markets analyst Robert Breza is predicting Microsoft will hold a 15-percent share in the tablet segment by 2014, the Financial Post reports, praising the new OS’ Metro UI as borrowed from Windows Phone.

“Unlike traditional Windows 7, ‘Smart Tiles’ leverages multi-touch for a clever way to conveniently access most frequently used files and data” Breza points out, suggesting that this “leverages both desktop and mobile.” Microsoft’s existing installation base and strong position among enterprise users should also help it along the way, it’s predicted, although the company will need to focus on application momentum if it wants to challenge the iPad’s market lead.

The impact Windows 8 on tablets has on Microsoft’s stock price could mark an end to periodic calls for CEO Steve Ballmer to be toppled, something the company’s board has always resisted while denying that the outspoken exec is “stuck in the past.” Earlier this week, Ballmer admitted dissatisfaction with Windows Phone sales but argued that the platform would receive a significant boost once the first Nokia devices to run the OS went on sale.

“Windows 8 tablets could be a valuation catalyst for the stock if investors begin to see Microsoft regaining leadership in the post-PC era” Breza concludes. The company’s share price
climbed to a high of 26.785 in the aftermath of BUILD, though with Windows 8 slates not expected to go on sale until next year the market is apparently still cautious.